Newcomers to U3A are likely to find that 'like minded' people appear in a number of their groups reflecting similar interests. In my case, Noel Meagher was a member of the first classes I chose --Politics, Music Appreciation and Wine Appreciation. Noel was also a member for many years of the 'Investment' groups and worked alongside Keith and Heather Rogers to organise the annual Christmas luncheon each year.

Memories of Noel, who passed away recently, are reflected in this selection of photographs from U3A Benalla's website collection taken from June 2014 to December 2018 and feature Noel's interest areas of Investment, Music Appreciation, Politics, Wine Appreciation and Christmas lunches!

Noel made me so welcome at U3A from the beginning. A very intelligent and thoughtful 'life longer learner', he will be missed at U3A.

​​Congratulations to our two new life members Joyce Borschmann & Vaughan Cowan who were presented with life membership badges at the Annual General Meeting on the 20th March this year.

​Joyce & her husband Bob started the Singing for Fun group and Joyce has been the convener from the start till last year. Over the years the singers have gone from strength to strength and have become one of the most popular groups.

​​Vaughan has likewise led the Bush Walking groups for 16 plus years. It is always great to see the photos of smiling faces and wonderful scenery on our website and Facebook page.

Both Joyce and Vaughan started with U3A in 1996 & after U3A closed down took up their roles when U3A reformed in 2002.

This is a note to recognise the contribution of Wendy Rush to Benalla U3A. Wendy was convenor of U3A Games group for three years to the end of 2015, taking on the role after Sue Hughes stepped down from the position. Wendy died on 27 December 2018 after a long battle with ill health.

A keen and talented Scrabble player, Wendy also filled in for the card players if they were short of players. And she supplied plenty of nibbles to keep up our minds sharp.

Wendy was very proud of her two sons and six grandchildren. We miss her bright personality and positive attitude to life, despite the challenges of her failing health in recent times.​Kathy Costello and Alice Bell

The Benalla Library would like to start a chess club for children and adults all ages. We are seeking volunteers willing to conduct these regular sessions. Someone who can tutor beginners and extend the advanced players.

We wouldn’t like to embarrass Vaughan with gushy tributes; nor compare him to his obvious equals, such as Sir Edmund Hilary, Bear Grylls and Russell Coight, but members of Benalla’s Bushwalking Club and the U3A Bush Walking groups would rank our Vaughan right up there.Vaughan’s membership with the BBC and U3A spans two decades. He put his hand up to organise and lead both the Easy Walks and Mid-Week Walks: a heavy work load for one person to carry. Vaughan, however, took it on with his habitual quiet competence. Without his extensive knowledge of the bush, wildflowers and his qualities of leadership and enthusiasm, the two Clubs would have not been as strong as they have grown to be.

We will all miss him in the driver’s seat and he will be a hard act to follow. To fill the breach, Margaret Walshe and Wendy Sturgess have taken over the reins of Easy Walks Coordinators and John Boehm will be the interim Convenor of the Mid-Week walks. The two Clubs therefore remain in capable hands.

No doubt Vaughan will remain an important member of the Clubs, sharing his inexhaustible bushwalking knowledge with walkers.

Special thanks must go to Marion Cowan, Vaughan’s cheerful and practical“better half”. As they say: “behind every Great Man (sorry Vaughan!) there’s a Great Woman”. This is certainly the case here. Not only is Marion an excellent cook (our bushwalking afternoon teas are legendary) but she seemed to alwaysmanage to come up with an answer for: “has anyone here brought along a ......?”; “what wildflower is that”; where is.......??

We trust that Vaughan and Marion will continue to remain active participants in future Club walks.

​At Swanpool Cinema on Thursday 31st January at 1.30 pm and Friday 1st February at 7.30 pm, 'Happy Sad Man', a newly released documentary including Ivan Lister, Benalla Rural Outreach worker. Directed by Genevieve Bailey, the documentary "draws back the curtain on the complex inner worlds of men from across Australian life", including farmers, and "challenges the way we think about masculinity today".

After 13 years as Convenor of Singing for Fun and Harmony Groups, Joyce Borschmann is retiring as Convenor of the groups at the end of 2018.

Joyce and her late husband Bob were original members of U3A Benalla when it commenced over 20 years ago. The Singing for Fun group started in Helen and Graham Mitchell’s previous home in South Street Benalla before moving to the CWA Hall for a few months. From there Singing for Fun and Harmony progressed to the Chapel at Cooinda before calling the Baptist Church in Bridge Street home for several years. Eighteen months ago Singing for Fun and the Harmony Group moved to the U3A room in the Senior Citizens’ building.

One of Joyce’s attributes is as a great organiser. She has successfully used this skill to allocate various tasks over the years to her willing band of helpers in the group. Joyce has a beautiful soprano voice and everyone will be delighted to know that Joyce is continuing as part of the soprano singers.

With a background in producing dramatic performances, Joyce has been able to impart some of her skills in this area to the participants of Singing for Fun. The other skill she has is excellent communication. Joyce has used this very successfully encouraging new people who join the group to feel part of the group very quickly.

Singing for Fun is one of the larger groups in U3A Benalla. We thank you Joyce for a great job over many years.​Margaret Jenkins

Our last Meet & Mingle on Wednesday saw 70 members attend. Singers, recorder players and audience all enjoyed a lovely musical morning. Thanks to the singers for the delicious spread to have with our morning tea.

It has once again been a busy and successful year for Benalla U3A. Our membership is steadily growing and the courses we have on offer are attracting many new members.

The biggest of thank you's go to all the hard working and dedicated convenors. With out them Benalla U3A would not be as successful as we are.

On a personal note my thanks to the Committee for a great years work and all the support they give me.

I wish all members a Very Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year.

See you all happy & healthy at Registration Days in January.​Dorothy Webber: President

This session, presented on Friday 30th November 2018 to 33 U3A participants, was the second in the series on Advanced Care Planning.

Brendan Smith From Smith Dosser Accountants/Financial Planners, outlined and provided a copy of a framework for consideration of retirement and end of life issues.

Damian Feehan from N J Todd Funeral Directors discussed the roles and responsibilities of funeral agencies and the need to preplan and communicate preferences prior to this stage of life.

Jo O’Brien and April Betheras from the Palliative Care Service outlined their roles and once again emphasised the need for people to record their care options/choices under certain scenarios when they are actively able to consider them. They outlined how this can help care givers and families at a time when communication becomes impossible.

A number of new courses are being offered in 2019. There are alterations to times for a number of subjects, please check to see if times have changed for groups you enroll with! These changes are to enable us to run more classes. Terry Case case.terence@gmail.com.au

This season we will take a look at some of the great nineteenth century French composers like Berlioz, Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc who were interested in opera as a musical form. Lovely arias, tuneful music, great singers and performances.

As usual the group meets at the presenter’s house on a Wednesday evening at 7pm. Drinks and light refreshments are offered. Maximum of 10 participants can be seated.

The course will cover the basics of patchwork and quilting whilst making a small panel. It is designed for people with no experience of patchwork, and does not require a sewing machine. By the end of the semester participants will have the skills to make a basic quilt.

Booker reading group 3rd Friday 2-4pm Presenter Meg Dillon

The annual Man Booker Prize is awarded to the novel deemed best by an extensive panel of judges in Britain. Writers in both America and post-colonial countries can also enter. Each year the search is narrowed to a Long List of 13 books, then the Short List of 6 from which the winner is chosen.

These novels are not for the faint hearted! They often explore contentious contemporary issues or the lives of families or individuals experiencing the difficulties of modern life.

The judges said of the Long List: All of these books – which take in slavery, ecology, missing persons, inner-city violence, young love, prisons, trauma, race – capture something about a world on the brink. Among their many remarkable qualities is a willingness to take risks with form.

The 2018 winner of the Booker was The Mars Room by American writer Rachel Kushner. You can google the 2018 Man Booker Long List to see the complete list.

If you are curious about some of the best contemporary fiction of the last year…please join us.

You will be expected to obtain your own copy of the books the group chooses to read, either by buying an e-book version, borrowing from a library, or purchasing a hard copy.German for BeginnersMondays, 12 - 1 pm Presenter Pauline Bailey

This course should give you a good understanding for basic communication in German. There are no set texts, but a small German-English dictionary would be useful. Notes will be provided at each session.

The first 10 weeks will provide the vocabulary and grammar underpinning the language. After a winter recess, we will resume for more advanced learning.

History

After the Victorians 3rd Tuesday 9.30-11.30 Presenter Terry CaseThe 20th century saw enormous changes in the period from 1900-1939. From the Boer War and Federation in Australia we then look at the White Australia policy and the fear of Japan as a world power. Germany and the USA overtook Britain as the leading industrial and military power. The Bolshevik Revolution was a turning point not just in W.W.1, but in European history. Socialism, Fascism and Communism challenged existing orders. The British Empire reached its peak in the 1930s, but the belief that Britain had a right to rule was challenged by Gandhi and others. DVD’s will be used to illustrate the sessions. An Introduction to Western Civilization 2nd & 4th Friday 2-4pm, Semester 1 Presenter Meg Dillon

History helps us understand some complex issues, even though it can’t and doesn’t predict future outcomes. Today our Western Civilization is strongly attacked as corrupt, militaristic and nihilistic.

But is it? How did it evolve and what aspects of should we embrace and be proud of?

These history sessions will look at the current situation, then briefly explore those past cultures that have created our complex Western world.Ancient Greece: it all started with the Greeks and their vast cultural agenda. Art, sculpture, philosophy, science and much more was developed by this squabbling, argumentative but lively group of city states and colonies, known as the Greek World.The Romans: masters of war, engineering and administration. Their Pax Romana (The Roman Peace) was spread across Europe in the largest ancient empire prior to the British Empire. The Romans would colonize and civilize other cultures but would brutally suppress any rebellion.The Italian Renaissance: The rich Italian city states of the thirteenth century rediscovered the Ancient World of the Greeks and Romans through their discoveries of surviving sculptures and ancient manuscripts. The result was a reintroduction of many of the achievements of these cultures that had been lost in the previous 1000 years. The Italians built on this foundation advancing both the practice of the arts and that of diplomacy in an era that was fractured by minor wars between the city states and the Papacy.The Reformation: In the early sixteenth century Martin Luther started a vast religious movement protesting against some of the corruption and excesses that had developed in the Catholic Church. The succeeding growth of Protestantism turned many parts of Europe into mercantile hubs where vast wealth started to be made by a merchant class, while more austere religious and communal practices were adopted by whole populations in Northern Europe.The Enlightenment: The age of science burst into being in the eighteenth century in England and France. Gentlemen ‘scientists’ started to look at the way the physical aspects of our world worked. In France the French Revolution in 1787 followed naturally from this development as the middle classes refused to accept the older corrupt rule of King, Church and nobles. This was the start of our era in which science and government would dominate our thinking and lead to Western democracy as we know it and the vast scientific knowledge that has changed our world and lives.

Discussion and suitable video and other images will be used to convey some of the key attributes of these major historical influences that have formed the Western world.Meditation1st & 3rd Monday 4-5pm. Presenter Caroline Sims

During the summer break, there will be continuing Be Connected sessions. If you weren’t able to attend any or all of the previous sessions last semester and you would like to extend your computing knowledge and skills we are running four sessions in January on Wednesday mornings at the U3A room.

U3A held its Christmas breakup at the iconic Barnawartha Star Hotel on Wednesday, 28 November. What a find this Hotel is. It's affable owners, rod and Ann Hawking, are in the process of renovating the interior's grand proportions and transforming the small Beer Garden area outside the French Doors. We spotted quite a few weary Victorian Great Bike Riders seeking refuge in or outside the Hotel for a well earned drink and a break. Our 2-course Christmas meal was delicious and service prompt and efficient. The Hotel has an extensive wine list of local wines to accompany meals. Our thanks must go to Noel, Heather and Keith, Benalla Bus Lines and of course Barnawartha Hotel for a very enjoyable break up. We hope to return...

The following article appeared in the 'Adult Learner's Week' lift out in the Ensign on 22 August.

The U3A movement is a volunteer organisation providing education, creative and leisure opportunities in a friendly environment for retired and semi retired and semi retired members of the community.

Benalla U3A has a room within the seniors building complex, which is used every day of the week for one or more programs.

It also runs activities at the art gallery (Art Appreciation), Benalla Leisure Centre (Lifeball) and the library (eBooks and Let's Talk Books), as well as bird watching, visits to wineries in the district and garden visits.

U3A's 'Chat n Chew' activity is one of their most popular, having lunch at a different local eatery once a month.

Benalla now has 289 members, many of whom come and go through the year, after all, we are retired and holidays and family visits are an important part of life.

It is one of 109 U3A groups representing 37,000 members across Victoria.

The U3A Newsletter is delivered by email or post each month to keep the public up to date with what is happening.

Benalla U3A is happy to welcome new members.

So don't be shy, come and join in, make your retirement years full of learning and friendship, meet new people and enjoy what U3A Benalla has to offer.

​U3A Benalla is a participant in the nationally funded Be Connected program. This week is Be Connected's 'Get On-Line Week', with older people being encouraged By Be Connected to '#try1thing'.

Our President, Dorothy, '#tried1thing' recently! Dorothy added her credit card to her mobile phone so she can use it when making transactions. Dorothy offered to share with us how she learnt to do this. Be Connected members brought along their devices and tried out Stocard with Dorothy's support. Bev also demonstrated the Google Home Assistant to lots of laughs.

A delicious afternoon tea was followed by a group photo - with a little time left over for work on 'Be Connected' on line learning modules assisted by our mentors.

News update

This page is for 'general' news - some will be 'just in' news notices of changes to timetables or news of meetings; other items will be celebratory, some will be sad, there will be some longer news items on topics of interest.